


Spiraling Out

by LosttotheHoping



Series: Legend of Zudai [1]
Category: Fable 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Evil!Sparrow, F/M, Gen, M/M, Male!Sparrow, Reaver kind of steals the show a lot (damn attention whore)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-29
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2017-12-30 20:08:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 3,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LosttotheHoping/pseuds/LosttotheHoping
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A closer look at the story told reveals the truth of the Hero of Barrowstone, and his companions.</p><p>Set up drabbles for upcoming story (Title to Be Determined)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Path Into...

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Chicken
> 
> Yep. Another one. >.>; I was in the mood! *flails* Sorry for the suckage. It gets better. I swear.

Alex was a simple woman.  She’d never been very smart, or exceptional in any way beyond her looks- which, considering, were rather normal for the day and age.  Even so, she’d been lucky enough to fall in love.  Not once, but twice, to two wonderful men.  The first- average, besotted, kind.  
  
Except she was too young.  Her heart couldn’t take it, so she fled, and he took his own life that night.  
  
Several years later, she met _him_.  Sparrow.  The man of many titles, the one that people whispered of in shadowy corners, looking around to be sure he wouldn’t just suddenly appear, fearing they would be struck down.  Her Sparrow, her beloved that spared no expense for her sake.  
  
He wasn’t a bad person when they met.  She still remembered the days they spent together, laughing, kicking chickens, walking and talking all about their lives.  They shared everything in those first days, from smiles to heartache.  
  
Sparrow asked her to marry him, and she said yes.  They were happy.  
  
Then something changed.  Her beloved disappeared, for years, not so much as a letter, a whisper of activity, a spoken message through a dear friend.  She wondered, and worried, and buried herself in the task of raising their daughter Catherine.  
  
Then, one night, as the sun dipped behind the mountains cocooning their little Serenity Farm, he returned.  She stood by the door, hands clasped together as her heart filled with gladness to see him.  
  
Sparrow drew to a stop before her, and those dark eyes merely stared at her, taking her in for a long, long time.  She stepped forward and took his hand, interlacing their fingers with a soft, concerned smile.  “Welcome home,” she murmured softly.  When she received only a nod in response, she tugged him with her inside, to meet his daughter again.  
  
Beyond that moment, he was cold, aloof.  Gone for long stretches of time.  When he was home, often times he would speak down by the Demon Gate with people she didn’t know.  Travelers, traders, a large woman with a hammer, and a dark man with silvery blue lines all over his body (like Sparrow’s, she’d noted once).  
  
But one thing never changed for her dear Sparrow, no matter what new name he’d earned for himself, no matter what the villagers of Oakfield, or Barrowstone thought of him.  Her husband was forever gentle, forever thoughtful.  He tended to them with a soft, sincere tenderness, even if he no longer laughed, or whispered endearments in her ear.  
  
He was still her Sparrow.


	2. Descent Since the Spire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hammer laments Sparrow's descent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Epiphany

She was watching Sparrow fall into shadow.  With every passing day, every new deed, he got quieter and darker.  People trembled, too scared to flee, as he walked by.  He never bothered with the weak ones these days, not since he’d massacred everyone in Oakfield a few years prior.  That had been before the Spire, of course.  
  
Garth said the Spire changed you, but honestly, Hammer was inclined to believe that the change began before that.  She wondered if maybe something happened to accelerate it, while Sparrow was there.  Something broken, or an epiphany.  
  
In any case, Sparrow was… the only words she could find to describe it were ‘pure evil’.  His eyes glowed red in the darkness, his regard sent chills down your spine, and simply being in his presence was like standing in a cold room.  His words, sparse before, were few and far between now.  
  
He tended to let others do the planning, but never hesitated to act on his own if it suited him.  His judgement was…  well, she couldn’t say he was wrong, ever, at least not when it came to the mission.  But he was driven, reckless, and downright cruel at times.  Occasionally, she caught herself wondering if his revenge was all that mattered to him.  
  
Then she would force herself to remember Alex, and Catherine.  Little Cat, he’d call her, or at least that’s what he used to, back when she was a baby.  He didn’t really talk about them at all these days, or anything else for that matter.  
  
She hated it.  All of it.  She hated standing here, watching her best friend twist himself into something horrible.  She hated that he was the one responsible for the deaths of the Temple of Light monks.  She hated that he seemed to be going down a path that she couldn’t follow, couldn’t protect him from.  That he didn’t _want_ her on.  
  
But most of all, Hammer hated that the Sparrow she met all those years ago was no longer there.


	3. What Reaver Is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garth's first impressions leave something to be desired. Fortunately, Hammer's good enough for all of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Live in the Moment
> 
> I think my bias towards certain pairings will become dramatically obvious in the next few chapters... Also, Hail Evil!Sparrow! That's right. Evil!Sparrow. If you didn't notice. >.> .... he's not much of a social butterfly. XDD

Reaver was… one of a kind.  He was handsome, debonair, eccentric, selfish…  He was arrogant and live-in-the-moment.  He was eternity, in a way Garth had never encountered before and probably never would again.  The man’s every movement spoke of grace and style.  His muscles shifted and slid like cream under silk as they fought their way out of his strong-hold, a sword in one hand, a gun in the other.

He never stopped grinning, the entire time.  His tongue was sharp, his wit sharper, and he not once gave up an opportunity to show off.  Particularly for Garth, which the Mage found fascinating and gruesome all at once.  
  
It was funny how, despite his betrayal, Garth didn’t even think about not trusting him as his own magic coiled up in breathless effort toward the Shard above them.  He didn’t even think that Reaver would stab him in the back.  Then again, Sparrow and Hammer were there too, so perhaps that had less to do with trust in Reaver’s survival instincts, and dealt more with Garth’s trust in the others’ dedication to the mission.  
  
Garth knew that Hammer’s innate sense of right and wrong would prevent her from allowing harm to befall him, and Sparrow… well, Garth was still useful to Sparrow, so despite the wild card that Reaver presented, the evil Hero would at least want to keep him around.  It was cold comfort, at best, but it was all he had.

Besides, he was pretty sure that Reaver was too busy watching his backside to bother stabbing it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Post Note: I'll be adding this to the summary, but these drabbles are the SET UP for the actual story. Which... I haven't started writing yet. I will also be posting said drabbles while writing, during instances that I can't expand upon. Like POV snags, for instance. So yeah. Watch for it!


	4. Take a Shine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garth's admirer may be a bit of a creeper. He very much minds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Shine
> 
> It's implied. Shut up. >.>;

Safety was relative, but survival was necessary.  That was a lesson that Reaver never forgot, one he’d inadvertently learned the hard way.  With these people, though, he kind of felt a little safe.

It wasn’t intended, of that he had no doubt, but it was hard to feel threatened when the people you hid with were a hot-tempered ex-monk, a mage with literally so little muscle mass that it was a wonder he was still so _very_ attractive (and boy was he), and a blind old hag.  Of course, Sparrow always got Reaver’s heart thumping, but to be fair, the man hadn’t ever done anything besides glower.  And loom, but eh, semantics.

In any case, for a while, between fact-finding missions and wild goose chases, the immortal man found himself almost relaxing in the company of the others.  Sparrow was hardly ever there, apparently more interested in fucking his wife than bothering with them in his free time.  Or… killing random people that offended him, apparently.  If Hammer’s bitching and whining was to be believed.

But he’d digressed.  “How far down do those delicious lines go, I wonder,” the thief drawled as he practically draped himself over the paperwork Garth was currently trying to decipher.  Call him a petty attention whore, he didn’t care- it was true, after all.

Garth looked up at him and frowned, drawing his eyes up from the shine of the magic coursing through his neck.  “Excuse me?” he asked in that deep voice of his.

Reaver allowed himself a moment to imagine Garth murmuring against his skin as they-

“I know what you’re thinking, and it’s gross.”

And there went his good time.  Huffing out a breath, Reaver let gravity tug his legs down and slipped to his feet before shooting Hammer an appropriately obnoxious, tolerant look.  “Why, Big Bertha, jealous are we?” he asked sweetly, and smirked when her fingers tightened on the hilt of that massive hammer.  “No need for that, there’s plenty enough of me to go around!”

“Why you,” the woman snarled furiously, puffing up and turning faintly red in the face.

Garth sighed somewhere behind Reaver, and snatched the quill pen he’d swiped out of his pocket.  “Can you both be silent, or must I enforce it?  I am _trying_ to _work_ here.”

Now _there_ was an idea the thief could get behind, and just like that, he whirled around to give the dark-skinned male his full attention.  “Do tell me how you plan to… _enforce_ my silence,” he drawled, sure to inject the right amount of indecent emphasis to the word.

He got a withering look in response before Garth proceeded to ignore him completely.  Which was really just so unfair.


	5. Teachings From a Novel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sparrow brings a curious item to Garth for help. Garth seems to have developed a sixth sense when it comes to Sparrow's selective muteness. Reaver's simply nosy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Evidence of Idiocy
> 
> Again, implied. 

The soft thunk of a heavy tome falling onto a thick wooden table echoed in the underground chamber, drawing the gazes (or at least _focus_ ) of them all.  Sparrow was decently sure he didn’t need to spell it out.  Garth was intelligent - moreso than any of them, besides maybe Theresa, but she was impossible to read at the best of times - and had already begun to pick up the ‘knack’ of figuring out what the other Hero wanted.

“A schoolbook?”  Blue eyes lifted in surprise to meet crimson ones.  “It’s in *Theishil.”

_Yes, Theishil_.  Regardless, the merchant Sparrow bought it from insisted it was better for teaching magic than any of the ones written in the common tongue.  Sparrow frowned down at the Mage impatiently.

Garth sighed.  “Do you want me to translate it for Cat?”  As Sparrow nodded, the dark-skinned man reached out and tugged open the beat up cover, carefully turning it to lay against the tabletop.  “I haven’t read anything in Theishil in… a very long time.”

“So you can’t do it?”

Sparrow’s gaze shifted toward the thief as Reaver stepped up beside him, obviously curious about this.  The younger Hero didn’t really like that, though, and glared.  Reaver only smiled at him, a vicious, knowing expression that would have gotten him killed if Sparrow didn’t need them all to help kill Lucien.

Garth sighed again, this time impatiently.  “Well of course I can, but it’ll take a while, especially on top of everything else…  However, I do have a few books you can use until I’m done with it.  I assume you want to teach her magic?  Has she shown a gift for it?”

Nodding, the Hero of Bowerstone glanced around the room, wondering where Garth had stashed these magic books.

“They’re at my Tower, so you’ll have to retrieve them from there,” the Mage piped up, as if reading his mind.

When Sparrow glanced his way, his head was already bent over the text, and he’d pulled a clean sheet of parchment off of the stack by his elbow to jot down notes with the quill in his hand.

The darker Hero nodded once more and turned, gaze catching on Theresa.  He paused, and her brow arched.  “Was there something you wanted?  Not my permission,” she said, dryly.  “You never care about that.”

He just shrugged, and walked toward the door.  He felt her “gaze” on him even after he was out of sight, as always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Theishil: That'll be explained later, in the story proper. It's a long-dead language, so naturally Garth excels at it.


	6. The Battle Ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not all of her reasons are revealed, as they will soon enough come to see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Redemption
> 
> I saved Theresa for last in the first round, because she was so hard to pin down character wise. But here. Ambiguous-at-her-best Theresa.

Her group of Heroes were… difficult, to put it kindly.  She wasn’t even sure if she really should call them ‘heroes’, in the traditional use of the word, as half of them spent more time on self-gratification than anything heroic, and a third cared more about knowledge than people in the first place.

There was Hammer, of course, with her gentle soul and sharp tongue.  Her temper was her weak point, most days, but she more than made up for it with her kindness.  Even after he’d slaughtered everything she loved, Hammer continued to care for Sparrow.  She was sad, but she still loved him, and for that, Theresa was glad.

She needed them to love him, for what lie ahead.  She needed Sparrow to have that support, to clutch hold of it when he would need it most.  Not the battle for redemption, to execute Lucien- she didn’t care about that.  That was merely a starting point, to set her Heroes into the ways they’d need for the true battle.

The battle that would come, and rip everything they held dear away, until all they had left was the company of each other.  The Seeress could only pray her preparations would be complete by then.

And first, she needed the Spire.


	7. Magician and Thief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hammer is figuring things out quicker than others would like to give her credit for. Sparrow's absolutely no help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Support
> 
> I am... so tired. Insomnia sucks!

On the hilltop, as they awaited Sparrow’s arrival, Hammer had an epiphany.  She was watching Garth watch Reaver, who was in the process of showing off for the Will user (a rather juvenile display, honestly) by poking fun at Theresa.  Theresa, thank the gods, ignored the Thief completely.

Reaver, Hammer was certain, was under the impression that his… _barbaric_ courting display did nothing (and now she was starting to sound like her father).  He would be wrong, if Garth’s thoughtful stare was anything to go by.

She almost couldn’t believe it.  That ridiculous, froofy twat was actually making some sort of good impression on Garth.  She’d _thought_ the Mage was smarter than that, but apparently not.

“Hmm- oh, I know!  You looked under the wrong woman’s skirt!” the Skilled Hero cackled merrily.

_Uhg_ , how much more repulsive could the man get?  She really hoped Sparrow got here soon, if not to stop Reaver from looking like an idiot, at least to give Theresa and Hammer some sort of moral support.

Then again, maybe ‘moral’ was the wrong word for it, she mused as she watched a blood-spattered Sparrow approach up the hill.  When he simply ignored Reaver instead of stopping him, she sighed.

Yes, moral was definitely the wrong word.


	8. Vengeance Declared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucien kills Sparrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Protect
> 
> Sorry this one's so brief and detail-lacking. I basically just wanted to get Sparrow's ever-evolving hatred brought up again, and make motions towards the end. Please feel free to comment/PM if you've any questions!

The words echoed through his mind.  He stopped hearing what the man said, as soon as they were spoken.  “ _Your family is dead_ ,” over and over, mercilessly, cutting him deeply each time.

He couldn’t protect them.  Hadn’t been able to protect Rose, and couldn’t protect his family either.  Not Alex, or Catherine, or even faithful Artemis, whom had stayed at his side all these years without fail.

He stood there, immobilized by the power around him, as Lucien lifted the gun.  He swore one thing.

_If I live, I’ll kill you._

It would not be an empty promise.


	9. Defiance of Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reaver takes initiative, and Garth notices.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Broken

The ensuing battle was vicious.  Reaver, somehow, impossibly, managed to escape Lucien’s hold, even when Sparrow was down, sprawled out over the ground with blood - black and steaming - spreading around him in a halo.  A macabre sight that stirred anger in all their hearts.

Theresa was missing, Sparrow was dead, and they were left alone without a leader or guidance.  Doomed from the start, but that neither stopped them nor made them hesitate for a moment.  They would not kneel for this man.  Not ever.

Soldiers threw themselves into the fight against the desperate Heroes, and died for it.  Hammer’s stone weapon crushed bone, Reaver’s bullets took out three at a time, and Garth’s magic spiraled up and out, destroying foes all around them.

From the corner of his gaze, as he fought off a magic-user, Garth spied Reaver’s sword dance, around Sparrow’s corpse, as if…

As if protecting it.   _Is he alive?_  But the blood was so thick, the hole in his forehead visible.  He hadn’t even twitched for long when Lucien shot him point blank.

He had no time to contemplate it, as more soldiers spewed forth, and they were overrun.

Defeated, but never broken.


	10. Battle of the Spire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somehow, Reaver gains Sparrow's respect, despite capture and surely certain death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Remember

It was a simple breath, when a breath should not be possible.  A twitch of the chest from their fallen comrade, that spurred Reaver into an impossible rebellion, unknowingly urging his companions in the process.  He kept enemies away from the body, and in the end, was forced to pitch it over the side of the hill.

 _Please do be sturdy enough to survive that, you great bother,_ he thought as he was seized from behind and forced to his knees with Hammer and Garth before Lucien.

He surveyed them silently, wrinkled, bony face impassive.  It was a terrifying, chilling look that Reaver had endured only once before.  That time, he’d killed the man.  This time, he might not even survive him.

“Take them,” Lucien commanded finally.

They were taken from the hilltop, by boat, to the Spire.  Reaver had never felt anything so powerful, so potent that it made his bones ache.  With every pulse, every thrum beneath his feet, his very skin felt alive.  He felt _truly alive_ , standing with his fellows in the depths of this massive, accursed place.

Lucien forced them to stand on three of four pedestals connected to a central hub, all of it stone and twisted wishes.  “Welcome to the Spire.  I don’t believe you’ve been here yet, Reaver, have you,” the man commented as they were chained to rock by ugly slaves.  “You will never leave.   _ **Sleep.**_ ”

Reaver remembered nothing of the next… however long it was.  When he was aware once more, he heard Lucien screaming, and sensed a dark presence nearby that was so dearly familiar, he found himself laughing.  An ironic background to the symphony of the mad lord’s death.

In the eerie silence afterward, he fell to his knees and stared at the man.  “You’re alive,” he heard Garth breathe, reverently, and grinned himself in echoing relief.

“I knew you were too hardy for a little ole cliff to harm you too much,” Reaver drawled.

Red, slitted eyes turned his way.  “So you put me there,” he muttered, voice soft and chilly.

Reaver shrugged to hide the shiver racing down his spine.  “If he’d seen you were alive-”

“Thank you.”

The words shocked them into silence long enough to precede Theresa’s mysterious return.  Throughout her following speech, her biased promises of rewards, and the resurrection of Sparrow's family, Reaver stayed still, breath caught in his chest.  He would never be sure if he'd heard that right.


	11. Beyond Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex and Catherine aren't dead for long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Longing

She woke to the sight of Sparrow, kneeling beside her with a hand on the curve of her jaw.  His face was so sad, so heartbroken that she reached out- and her fingers passed right through him.  Like a mirage, he rippled and faded away, leaving Alex filled with longing and no way to know what was happening.

She remembered being scared, being in pain, wanting to flee.  She remembered an old man, with a gun.  She remembered… remembered hiding Catherine under the bed.  Remembered him coming in, lifting the gun….

But there was nothing else.  Now, she lay comfortably in her own bed, staring up at the peaked ceiling of her home.  It was utterly quiet, no sign of life anywhere nearby, and so she rose to find her daughter.

The child was downstairs, sitting at the table with a bit of charcoal and a torn piece of paper.  She was doodling great beasts being slain by a figure Alex could only think was Sparrow.  “Cat?” the woman asked, sitting in a chair beside her.

Will-blue eyes lifted to meet hers, a startling change that the woman had never expected to see.  “Mommy, are we dead?”

Alex’s breath caught in her throat at the query.  Dead?  “What would make you _think_ that?” she breathed in horror.

Catherine shrugged and looked down at the paper.  “I found Soti,” she murmured, coloring in the bubble that represented Sparrow’s skin.

The mother stilled at this news.  Soti.   Once, when she was younger, Sparrow had caught little Cat a rabbit, and named it Soti.  Two years later, Soti was snatched up by a hungry wolf and devoured.

“Where is he now?”

“I dunno,” Cat said thoughtfully.  “He left.”

Before Alex could question her daughter further on the matter, the door behind her slammed shut.  She whirled around, heart in her throat, and expected to see that horrible madman again.

Instead, a strange woman stood there, hands clasped before her, with a hood of leather pulled over her face to hide blind eyes.  Her garb consisted of leather-and-cotton gypsy dress, with a gleaming golden locket clasped around her throat.

Under Alex’s scrutiny, the woman held out her hands.  “Come, both of you.  I will take you to Sparrow,” she murmured, voice a haunting echo that went right through Alex’s flesh to rattle her bones.

Even so, without knowing why, Alex stepped forward and clasped her hand tightly, terrified.  The light came next, once her daughter was with her, and then she knew no more.


	12. What the Future Holds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theresa has her reasons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Esoteric
> 
> Here's the last chapter, folks. Enjoy!

For Theresa, life was divided.  There was the widely known, the obvious, and there was that which was best meant to remain esoteric and secret.

Thus, she could not tell Sparrow, as she sent him away to his newly resurrected family, that they would meet again.  She could not tell him that one day, on some distant battlefield, they two would be allies, or that the regard he garnered from his fellow Heroes would someday _mean_ something.

Instead she watched him fade, felt the focus of those red eyes on her until the evil man was gone, and hoped he would measure up.  If not, if he faltered, if he failed…

The world was doomed, and the Legend of Zudai would prove false.  That, alone, the world could not endure, and so Theresa set to making her final preparations.  This would take a lot of magic, and a lot of time.  She prayed it would be enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Characters and Fable II do not belong to me, but to Lionhead Studios and all associated thus. I am responsible for creating the story line only. Please do not take and use or post elsewhere without my permission.


End file.
